I was recently looking at fleet ships and vulture doctrines that exist solely because they counter FNI with their T2 resist profiles. That got me thinking—what would make other ships with similar resist profiles viable, like the Deimos or Eos? I came up with an idea to make these ships a bit more viable in fleets without completely changing them: make armor and shield repair amounts also receive bonuses when coming from external sources. I think the lower buffer would balance out the stronger remote reps nicely without breaking things.
Another idea I had was to remove hull repairers (yes, they actually exist) and make armor repairers also restore hull at the beginning of each cycle. That would be a small but meaningful buff to armor reps, which I think is needed.
FeroxFleet is such a popular doctrine in large part because it’s cheap, effective and quick to skill into.
what, exactly, do you envisage here?
local active tank bonuses would also apply to incoming remote reps?
that would be busted. guardian rep amounts being boosted by Deimos local rep bonuses? that’s a HUGE rep amount.
The secret to defeating a known doctrine lies largely in shooting into their resist holes.
Yes, and I don’t think it would be overpowered, because those ships have a smaller buffer and lower overall resist profiles. It also works against incoming reps, which makes them easier to kill compared to high-resist armor ships. At the same time, they require less “logistic mass” of reps to stabilize, which keeps their bonuses relevant. If you’re worried about a small gank fleet with one or two Oneiros, you’re not breaking through a Deimos’ armor anyway. It may look like a buff, but in my opinion it’s more beneficial than harmful, as it encourages coordinated fleet play.
This change would also broaden the usability of such ships. Currently in EVE, unlike pure “repair” ships, buffer-oriented ships can fit into other roles - though in a limited way - while still benefiting from their bonuses. With this adjustment, repair-focused ships could also take on limited buffer roles, adding more flexibility to fleet compositions.
That is not true. It has absolutely nothting to do with FNIs, they were used long before FNI fleets even became viable.
Vulture Doctrines exist because they offer a combination of Battleship Tank + extreme Resists (which allows an enourmeous RemoteRep tank) + Battlecruiser mobility + variable range + good application even on Destroyer+Cruiser hulls + the ability to insta-switch targets. The low DPS of the individual ship doesn’t really matter any more, if the enemy can’t break you and you have enoug numbers to overwhelm their Logi with constant target switches and still enough power to break one of their ships every so often.
Vulture Doctrines are extremely potent if you plan for a longer engagement in wich your goal is to thin out the enemy fleet over time while your own ships can’t really be broken due to the long distance you can hold and the incredible hard tank you have.
Now to your ideas:
The Deimos is going to get buffed in the next patch, smaller sig will do some good for that ship. Also both Deimos and Eos can be used, but from the nature of their design they are not really well suited as large fleet ships in masses. And they don’t have to be, they outperform the Vulture in small- to medscale Engagements by a huge margin.
You can always achieve that, by adapting your fit for extremely high resists. So instead of Buffer-Rigs, fit T2 Resist Rigs. Fit active hardeners and overheat if you get primaried. Incoming RR is exponentially stronger the closer your resists come to 100%.
Not sure about that. Yes, it would add convenience. On the other hand, in some very tough battles where you can barely break the opponents RR, it sometimes is crucial to switch away from a target that is under full RR, even while it already is in half structure. You simply can’t break it any more. But you can switch back to it later and then the missing somethousand eHP from the already destroyed hull make sure that you can score the kill before the enemy logis can catch it.
I agree tho, that Hull Repairers are currently close to useless in the game. Not sure if CCP does want that so Hull-RR isn’t competing with Armor-RR (well, because Hull-Resists are pretty limited, they would have to be insanely strong to even come close…).
What I would like is a “Mobile Repair Station” deployable that has an Anchoring timer of 1 minute, relatively low HP so you can’t use it during a fight, but once deployed it slowly repairs shield, hull and structure, overheat damage and drones of all ships nearby. So if you are out of a fight and in a relatively safe area, you can “recharge” your gang and keep roaming around instead of people need to find a place to dock up and repair (which can be pretty far out if you are roaming in hostile terretory). It would at least be a lot more convenient than doing that with a mobile depot and have ships refitting for RR-modules. Without really influencing combat situations at all.